back to the foundation.

The foundation of a thing is seriously the most important part of that thing.  Foundations uphold the integrity of a structure.  Without a foundation, a structure cannot stand.  This is true for houses & buildings & relationships & workplace decisions & life in general.  If the foundation is built hastily, the structure will eventually collapse.  Now, let's talk about structures collapsing...this isn't always the end of the world; sometimes structures need to collapse.  I know, you're thinking "What in the world is this girl talking about? Why would a structure ever need to collapse?"  Just hear me out, in five minutes it will all make sense...promise.

Sometimes in life we are faced with decisions that are easy to make.  Then there are difficult decisions to make.  The beauty in being faced with a difficult decision is that you automatically begin building the foundation of that thing slowly, because it's not an easy decision to make.  You take adequate time to think and then to build, to pray and then to build, to process and then to build.  When decisions are easy to make, we run the risk of hastily building up the foundation.  Our eyes and hearts and desires are so anxious to see the finishing of the structure that we pay little or no attention to the most important part: the foundation.

Moving on to the area of relationships.  (To those faithful reader(s) of this blog, you know right now I'm not talking about romantic relationships because I'm a big proponent of speaking only when you know what you're talking about.  Obviously, in this season of my life, I wouldn't know what I was talking about if I was speaking only on those kind of relationships, so please be enlightened; here I am talking about any relationship - mostly of the friendship variety.)  Relationships are one of the most essential areas in our lives where the foundation has got to be built the right way.  It's hard because (and I'm being candid here) sometimes we just want to jump right in to relationships with no regard to time.  No limits, no regrets, no boundaries.  What happens when we take this route is when we're fully invested and feel like we know all there is to know about a particular relationship (we've climbed to the top floor of the structure), we notice that the foundation is cracked, wobbly or sinking.  What goes up in haste comes crashing down in haste.  Don't be discouraged by this, because sometimes when our foundations are cracked and our structures have to come down, we have an incredible opportunity to do something great: rebuild.

There is beauty in the rebuild.  It will be difficult and challenging at times, that's just real life.  Setting boundaries after there have been none is not fun.  While you're rebuilding, you can't help but think about how you wish that you never had to start over, but then the Lord steps in and reminds you of two important things.  One:  while you're rebuilding, you have to start over from the beginning.  The past has to be the past.  You have to start over with priveleges and trust and all of that.  Two:  Things that are built the right way, even if they are being built for the second or third or eighth time are sweeter and stronger.  Things that are rebuilt are seasoned, and things that are seasoned always have more to offer.  It's okay if you have to rebuild the structure, but remember the foundation.  What a thing is built on top of determines the integrity that surges through that entire thing.

Yes, sometimes structures need to collapse for the sake of making sure the foundation is filled with all of the right things.  But that's ok, because when you start over, the process means way more.  You're congnizant of all of the right things.  Build, or rebuild, your life, decisions, relationships and motives on love, joy and encouragement.